Posted by admin! / Under Social Surfing
A third of Florida's nearly 3 million retirees, 65 and older, now rely entirely on Social Security, according to an analysis by AARP. "Folks have spent down their assets," said Jeff Johnson, AARP interim director in Florida. More Floridians are likely to end up only on Social Security than retirees in the rest of the country: A quarter of U.S. retirees, 65 and older, have only their monthly checks as income, Johnson said. Many of the most strapped are Florida's oldest, he added. Florida seniors, 80 and older, are about three times as likely to depend
Published on Tuesday 7th of February 2012 07:54:12 PM
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Posted by admin! / Under Social Surfing
I'm talking about the direct constitutional, virtue-of-the-law way that Social Security's paid for is with that one deduction on your paycheck, FICA. I don't remember what it stands for and it doesn't matter. Now, my point about this is, here you have a Democrat president, who wants to cut the payroll tax by 4%, he wants that large a tax cut in the payroll tax, which would blow a $250 billion hole in Social Security funding at a time when everybody knows that we're short on being able to pay all the obligations now. We have reached the tipping point....
Published on Tuesday 7th of February 2012 07:54:12 PM
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Posted by admin! / Under Social Surfing
Not just some offhand comment... GOP court-jester Ron Paul is now working the remark hard in Iowa as he attempts to sow doubt in the hearts of Newt-intenders... while the rest of us scratch our heads and wonder what ever possessed Gingrich to put it out there in the first place. After seeing the Ryan budget's approval rating tank in the polls for a month, Newt came out in mid-May stating he didn't find 'right-wing social engineering' any more palatable than ObamaCare's 'left-wing social engineering'. The former House Speaker then attempted to nuance that criticism of Ryan's Path to Prosperity in...
Published on Tuesday 7th of February 2012 07:54:12 PM
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Posted by admin! / Under Social Surfing
In this exclusive video, Nobel-laureate F. A. Hayek discusses the evolution of morality and social norms, arguing that they result from unplanned, emergent processes. He contrasts this conclusion with other philosophical accounts of law and morality.
Published on Tuesday 7th of February 2012 07:54:12 PM
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Posted by admin! / Under Social Surfing
Social Security advocates are planning to protest Thursday at Social Security offices around the county. Thousands of American Federation of Government Employees Social Security employees, along with the Alliance for Retired Americans, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, and the Strengthen Social Security Campaign are protesting recent proposals from Congress that would cut the Social Security Administration's operational budget.
Published on Tuesday 7th of February 2012 07:54:12 PM
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Posted by admin! / Under Social Surfing
For one of the nation’s most famous billionaires, Steve Jobs kept a low profile as a charitable donor. Unlike fellow tech leaders Bill Gates of Microsoft and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, he did not sign the Giving Pledge, the effort under which the nation’s richest individuals commit to giving at least half of their wealth to philanthropy. His name is absent from the list of gifts of $1 million or more maintained by Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy. And it wasn’t until after an unflattering media report aboutJobs on the subject over the summer that Apple in September initiated a...
Published on Tuesday 7th of February 2012 07:54:12 PM
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Posted by admin! / Under Social Surfing
She's Baaaaack! No sooner does Noman think he's done with Elizabeth Warren than she leaps into the fray with yet more provocative material. This woman is a living, breathing blog-op. It's worth taking time to address her for several reasons. First, she's a walking compendium of Liberal certitudes whose cocksure righteousness causes her to effuse pristine formulations of Statist credal beliefs. Secondly, she's a Chaired Harvard Law Professor, which attests to her position at the top of the profession's food chain, and highlights the beliefs that animate the nation's preeminent reservoir of legal wisdom. Finally, she's a perpetual menace to...
Published on Tuesday 7th of February 2012 07:54:12 PM
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Posted by admin! / Under Social Surfing
Women are to be allowed to vote in Saudi Arabia. K ing Abdullah bin Abdulaziz announced the change yesterday and also said women would be allowed to run in elections. However, the new law will not come into force until 2015. In a speech, the king said the move was in accordance with sharia law.
Published on Tuesday 7th of February 2012 07:54:12 PM
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Posted by admin! / Under Social Surfing
I like Freeman's idea of providing each individual with a trust fund when young rather than retirement benefits when old, but we had better realize that this is a significant change in the character of the social insurance system. Social Security is structured from the point of view of the recipients as if it were an ordinary retirement plan: what you get out depends on what you put in. So it does not look like a redistributionist scheme. In practice it has turned out to be strongly redistributionist, but only because of its Ponzi game aspect, in which each generation...
Published on Tuesday 7th of February 2012 07:54:12 PM
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Posted by admin! / Under Social Surfing
I didn’t participate in the mass social justice rallies last night. I wanted to, sort of. But inertia and washing the post-Shabbat dishes grabbed center stage. Moreover, I’m still conflicted about whether or not I fully support what’s going on outside on our streets. Nehemia Strasler put it best in an article in today’s Haaretz. Strasler, an economics writer for the paper, compared the two main voices of the protest movement: that of Daphni Leef, who started the whole thing on Facebook, and Itzik Shmuli, head of the National Student Union. Leef tends to get most of the press –...
Published on Tuesday 7th of February 2012 07:54:12 PM
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